Well we made it to
Rome! Arrived at 1.10pm and breezed through customs (what customs
actually!!) - it did take forever for our bags to come out – seems
to be just what happens in Rome. No hurry. What a flight...the
6.5hr flight was good, plane was a Boeing 777 – smaller than the
A380 – you really notice the difference! Food was good. Steve
didn’t eat – again.
What movies did I
watch? Money Monster with George Cluny of course! The Man Who Knew
Infinity (great movie...going to buy that one on DVD), and I started
watched Eddy The Eagle and got 10mins to the finish and they cut off
the movies – NOOOOOOO - bastards! Ugh – so now I have to buy
that one to see the ending.
We were met at the
arrivals hall by the most lovely gentleman. In my tiredness, I never
caught his name – such a shame, as he was just beautiful and so
friendly and made us laugh the entire way into Rome.
Gosh its warm here…
it was 16 degrees and very overcast and yet it was humid as hell –
thought I was in Bali for a moment!
We arrived at our
apartment – Roma Veneto Relais – via Collina n’24 HUGE doors
greeted our arrival….all doors are huge here!
Riccardo was our
arrival host. I want to put him in the suitcase and bring him home!
He’s so lovely.
Our room (#2) is
fantastic! Small, but it has everything you need in it. The
bathroom was funky – I love the LED lights which are on a colour
relay, turning red, blue, green & yellow – looks like a disco.
Amazing shower head and wall vents. Steve could have stayed in the
shower all day. We both had a shower to freshen up and decided that
sleeping now was a bad idea and that we should get outside, even if
it was for an hour.
Once we settled,
Riccardo got out the map and showed us some sights and where to go.
We decided to go walking, it was about 3.30pm. The first thing we
did was walk directly across the road, to La Caruso Gelati shop –
RIGHT ACROSS THE ROAD – like, 10m walk from our big front door to their
door… I can see them from our bedroom window!!! I am in Gelati
Heaven!
So what flavours to
have….. of course everything was in Italian and being the first
5mins being in the country & being sleep deprived, nothing had
come flooding back to me, so it took a minute to work out what the
flavours were. I was SO EXCITED and I must have freaked the girls
out behind the counter – they were giggling and laughing. Steve
had Vanilla, Custard Vanilla & Milk Chocolate with Waffer and
Cream. As there was no coconut on the menu, I had to be content
with Pistachio, Banana & Cassata Siciliana, Waffer & Cream. Was
lovely. I was a very happy girl.
From there we
started walking, taking the back streets, looking at all the fabulous
old architecture at every turn & admiring the cobblestone
streets.
We found the area
that Riccardo warned Steve about – the ritzy shopping district!!
OMG – the place was going OFF….I mean, GOING OFF!! remember the
23million Chinese that followed me around when we were in Beijing
last year? Well, they had nothing on this place. Every street was
wall to wall people and there are a lot of streets! Fendi, Tiffany,
Bvglari, Hermes, you name it, they were all there.
I found out later this was the Spanish Steps....ahhhh, now it all makes sense. Plus it was a Sunday, and everyone is out on a Sunday, the locals and the tourists make for a very busy place. I loved the vide!
I found out later this was the Spanish Steps....ahhhh, now it all makes sense. Plus it was a Sunday, and everyone is out on a Sunday, the locals and the tourists make for a very busy place. I loved the vide!
Steve
was hoping to find the Vodafone store to get a SIM card. We turned
left up a street instead of turning right…. It was ok, as there
were lots more ritzy stores to see. But we ended up in front of a
Basilica, so we decided to go inside. Thank god Steve had his
camera….this church was BEAUTIFUL (but they all are – right?).
So we walked around and soaked all the art in, before leaving again
to find Vodafone. The heavens opened with some rain for a few
minutes and then cleared, but it did make it more humid.
We
finally found the Vodafone store, and took a number and started
waiting. It was so hot in the shop, that I took the camera and shot
the local Castania stall (roasted chestnuts) – OMG – these guys
are on every corner. I really want to buy some to try (maybe
tomorrow night).
We
got sick of waiting at Vodafone and it was then that Steve realised
we couldn’t have purchased anything as he didn’t have any
identification. So we started to head back to the hotel. Not before
stopping at Carlos Pizzeria. It was the enormous wood fired oven
that got Steves attention. But he ended up eating Spaghetti
Carbonara, and I had Cannelloni and ensalata! It was nice to it out
on the street and watch the world walk by. They even gave us a shot
of Lemoncello to finish off our meal - YUM!!
I
took a photo of Steve in front of the restaurant with the big pizza
oven in the background, only for an Italian lady to come over to me,
asking about photos…..I thought she wanted me to take a photo of
her and her grandson….but no – she was worried I had taken a
photo of the child and demanded to see the photo to ensure he wasn’t
in it….OMG…. After proving to her that he was not in the photo,
she apologised for being so abrupt and then left. WOW – there you
go – be careful of where you point that camera!
It
felt like it was so late, as we were officially exhausted we headed
back to the hotel, where our Riccardo was waiting to greet us. I
tell ya, he is coming home with us…. He printed out for me the 20
best Gelati shops in Rome and their addresses. And also the best
local places to get local cuisine – away from the tourist
restaurants. Riccardo is also studying Graphic Design, so that
started us chatting for ages about art and photography – well, you
know we can talk about photography for hours and hours. After boring
Riccardo with our many, many images from Canada, NZ, Tasmania etc, we
decided to hit the hay and get some sleep. The time would have been
8.30pm.
